Highlights of the Saturday, March 3rd Class 2A boys basketball state championship game between Lovell and Wyoming Indian

Scroll down to watch the highlights of the game!

The Chiefs go on a huge 3rd quarter run, to win their 3rd state title in 4 years.

This is not what it looks like…because the pom poms need some warm-up and stretch time, before they are properly put into action!

Lovell vs. Wyoming Indian for the 2A state championship…first quarter…Lovell wearing the white…it took a few tries but they were determined to get on the board first…McKayan May will catch the air ball, and score in traffic…and the foul…he did not convert, but the Bulldogs lead 2-to-nothing.

Wyoming Indian was playing in their 4th straight title game…and was looking to go 3 for 4 in that stretch..Joey Aragon takes aim and let’s ‘er fly…and connects for 3…and now the Chiefs have some points, leading 3-to-2.

Things went back and forth for a bit, early on…and that was to be expected, seeing how these 2 teams are playing each other for the 4th time this season…Cody Savage had a double-double in this game…17 points and 13 boards and he puts his team up 4-to-3.

These 2 teams know each other pretty well, so it’s going to be hard to pull off something new…Aragon had 5 points in the game…we already showed you 3 and here’s the other 2…WIHS reclaims the advantage…5-to-4.

Neither team had much luck in this game getting any long balls to drop…so they had to find other ways to score…Dylan Hultgren will make his prescene known as he’ll come in from behind and sink a jumper…his team goes back up 8-to-5.

They were trying to get as many players as they can into this one…because that’s how a pack of Bulldogs run…Ryan Clark will get a friendly roll as he’ll put in 14 points to help the cause….they have the score doubled up at 10-to-5.

This game was going at the pace that the Bulldogs wanted to go at…here’s Colin May getting started on his 13 point game…that would make the score, 14-to-7.

Then the Chiefs would start to get a little something going…Joseph Howell gets through 2 defenders and he’ll get the shot to drop and that would reduce the deficit some…it’s now 14-to-9.

The big scoring threat hasn’t done much yet…that would be John Soundingsides, but he just getting started…his foot was on the line so that will go down as a long 2…but it was the start of a 20 point day for him…Wyoming Indian is still down 14-to-11…give us just a moment and then you’re going to see the defense come up with a play…Soundingsides winds up with it at first, but Alvin Spoonhunter is much closer to the hoop. That’s 4 points for the Chiefs in a matter of seconds…now they trail by 1…it’s 14-to-13.

Lovell needed to open up some breathing room and they would…Savage scores quickly on the inbounds…and the foul…the 3-point play has his team breathing a little easier…up 21-to-13, after the first 8 minutes.

2nd quarter…Wyoming Indian would come back again…Soundingsides thought about it…thought about it again…and then just did it…3 points…hesitation is sometimes good…his team is still down 21-17.

Then here comes Spoonhunter…he is just on the warpath on this play…and he’s also taking matters into his own hands…12 points and he was 1 rebound short of a double-double…Chiefs are still trailing 21-to-19.

Around now, is when the pace of the game slowed down a bit on both sides…so there’s not much to show. Hultgren will pop and hit from about the foul line on the far side…that has Lovell leading 25-to-19.

WIHS was going to bench and it started to produce some results…watch the pass to Tyler Penatac…that’s worth showing…WIHS still trails by 4, it’s 25-21 at this point.

Lovell got almost all of their scoring from their starting 5…and they had a good starting 5. Hultgren strikes again…and the Bulldogs would maintain the lead going into the locker room…up 29-to-23.

Now of course anytime a team from the reservation is in a championship game, support for that team comes in many shapes and colors…red and blue was definetly the color of choice! These guys were ready!

3rd quarter…Lovell was not going to be intimidated by the WIHS crowd…they’ve won in Ethete before…Clark slips in behind the defense and they realized it too late…Bulldogs lead 31-to-23.

Wyoming Indian would go to someone else to counter…Ron Mitchell fakes one defender and that’s all he needed to do, in order to clear the way to 2 points…his team is still trailing, 31-to-25.

The one problem that both teams had in common was turn-overs…21 each by both teams is usually not good…McKayan May would cash in on this one though…as Lovell would build a 10 point lead and go up by a score of 37-to-27.

That was a key moment in the game, because here’s where the momentum started to shift big time…Soundingsides will go for a 15-footer from the wing and drain it…that got things started…the deficit is at 8…it’s 37-to-29.

Actually…Soundingsides was just heating up…he’s going wayyy downtown this time and finds nothing but net…everyone could sense something was up, because the scoreboard reads 37-to-32…but this highlight is not over with yet…wait for the defense to show up…Soundingsides will make the interception…then feed it ahead to Spoonhunter who will take care of the rest…last year’s state runner-ups have something going…down 37-34.

There was more to come…the Bulldogs cough up the ball…and WIHS is on the run…they find Mitchell and he finds his team 2 more points and Wyoming Indian would finally re-take the lead…up 38-to-37 at this point.

Later…here comes someone else…Wilson Clifford…he scored 12 off of the bench and that was a key stat when the game was over…the Chiefs are on a run, leading 40-to-37.

And the fast-break chances kept right on coming for them…Spoonhunter is already ahead of the defense…there’s another 2 points…and WIHS was feeling it…leading 47-to-39 going into the final 8 minutes.

4th quarter…they kept going…there’s Clifford on the far side…the drive, the collision, the hoop and the foul…that was all part of a 24-to-2 run, and Wyoming Indian would eventually go up by 12…with a 51-to-39 advantage.

Lovell was in trouble and they knew it…Colin May pulls up for a quick 3 and that would stop the bleeding for a little bit…but the damage has been done and the Bulldogs are down 51-to-42.

I said earlier that turn-overs were a problem and here comes another one…May will get his pockets picked and Clifford is already taking off in the other direction…WIHS was starting to pull away up 57-to-44.

Now this next highlight took a lot of work, but Spoonhunter was up to the task…he took the really long way around the defense…and found a path to the hoop…the Chiefs were enjoying their biggest lead of the game…a 15 point advantage and a 59-to-44 score.

The problem for Lovell was something I mentioned earlier..the starting 5 like McKayan May…scored most of the points…actually they scored every point for the Bulldogs but 1…almost no production from the bench. Meanwhile the opposition would mix it up…Trevor Williamson will get the honors on the last highlight.

The Wyoming Indian Chief bench outscored Lovell’s bench 28-to-1 and that ended up paving the way to the state title, for the 3rd time in 4 years. Final score, 68-to-57. WIHS will finish the season with a record of 23-and-6.